The origin of nucleocytoplasmic large DNA viruses, and where they come from, is still unclear. Some
evolutionists have proposed that these microorganisms are
large-sized viruses with very large genomes that broke out
of the nuclei of eukaryotes, taking a host of genes along with
them. On the other hand, they also carry a large number of
genes from cellular organisms, raising the possibility that
they are really degenerate bacterial species. Also, what is
peculiar to these organisms is that they have a very high
percentage of genes which do not have any homologs with
any other organism,
1 supporting the view that NCLDVs have
a separate origin from all other organisms.
2

An important question to be addressed is whether
baraminic analysis can be performed on NCLDVs. Since
they have such a high proportion of unique genes, we
can assume that they could form a possible apobaramin,
which is defined as a group of one or more holobaramins
independent from one another. The Bible does not mention
microorganisms specifically, but if God created all living
things, why would He create microorganisms in a different
manner than plants or animals, after their kinds? If neither
plants nor animals evolve, why would microorganisms
evolve? Therefore, we can assume that transferring statistical
baraminological methodology from complex organisms to
microorganisms such as NCLDVs is warranted.

Principle of analysis

In this analysis, the number of common proteins werestudied between 49 NCLDV species, whose proteinsequences were available in the COG database.
3 Twodifferent proteins were considered homologs if they hada minimal similarity of 40%, which is considered to bethe lower limit of protein sequence homology.
4 A JaccardCoefficient Value (JCV) was calculated to measure thedegree of similarity between two NCLDV species. Thehigher the JCV, the higher the similar gene content betweentwo species. As to what constitutes a high JCV, it dependson the kind of study being done. For example, here, themedian JCV was 0.065. A matrix was made which containsthe JCVs of all possible NCLDV species pairs, and can beseen in figure 1. Out of 1,176 possible species pairs, only
41 had a JCV ≥ 0.25, and only 8 pairs had a JCV ≥ 0.5. Infigure 1 we can see 10 clusters of species, with 2–8 memberseach. A list of the species forming these clusters can beseen in table 1. According to our model, these clusterscorrespond to individual NCLDV baramins. If we lower thecutoff JCV to 0.1 (warranted due to the high rate of HGT inNCLDVs), we pick up three extra pairs of NCLDV species:Frog virus 3 and Singapore grouper Iridovirus (Iridoviridae),Acanthocystis turfaceaChlorella virus 1 and ParameciumbursariaChlorella virus 1 NY2A (Phycodnaviridae), andEctocarpus siliculosus virus 1 and Feldmannia species virus(Phycodnaviridae).

Description of different NCLDV
baramins found in the analysis

Phaecocystis

The three Phaecocystis species all have JCVs greater than
0.98 with each other. However, notably, they also have JCVs
of around 0.11 with Organic Lake phycodnaviruses, which
belong to the same family. Therefore, these NCLDVs may
be classified together into one baramin, thereby aggregating

Baraminic analysis of nucleocytoplasmiclarge DNA virusesJean O’Micks

The origin of nucleocytoplasmic large DNA viruses (NCLDVs) is very intriguing. While some researchers think they are
large-sized viruses, there is proof that they might be degenerate bacteria. The Bible does not mention bacteria, viruses,
or NCLDVs. Very little is known about their baraminology, so this analysis serves as a seminal attempt to discover what
kinds of species relationships exist between them. Therefore, gene sequences were downloaded for 49 NCLDVs from the
COG database, and BLASTed against one another to see whether NCLDVs form groups, such as the kinds of complex
multicellular organisms, such as plants or animals. Here we employed a measure of gene content similarity called the
Jaccard Coefficient Value (JCV) to measure the similarity between two species, and to see which species can be grouped
together based on high gene content similarity between the individual members. Eight NCLDV clusters were found which
have at least three members each. Although few species were analyzed, this study may serve as the basis for future
baraminology studies on bacteria, viruses, or other microorganisms.